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Baseball Federation of Asia Spearheads Global Expansion of Baseball

2018 1st BFA Executive Committee Meeting Held on Jan. 31 in Taiwan

1. Presidential Address:

BFA EC Meetingopened with a minute’s silence to late EC member Syed Khawar Shah of Pakistan who passed away on January 16, 2018 at the age of 68.

President Peng thereafter welcomed the attendees to Yilan, northeastern Taiwan, and thanked all the members of BFA for their support for his election to the Executive Board Member of WBSC and Executive Vice President of Baseball Division at the WBSC Congress in Botswana, Africa last October. He pledged to continue to promote baseball globally together with Hiroko Yamada of Japan who was elected as Member-at-Large of Baseball Division of WBSC and asked EC members to carry onthe passion of late Hector Navasero of Philippines andSyed Khawar Shah.

Some important amendment to BFA U-12, U-15, U-18, Asian Championship, Women’s Asian Cup was also unanimously approved, so was the amendment to BFA Event Hosting Manual. All member Federations are required to study these changes which will be informed by BFA Secretariat

3. Agenda:The following 2018 BFA tournaments and events were tabled and approved.

2018 Asian Games, Jakarta, Indonesia, August 26 - September 1st. (subject to confirmation). Report by Mr. Leo AgusCahyono, IBSF was supplemented by Mr. Chris Day who inspected the first ground in Senayan (South Jakarta) with Jeff Kun in December when BFA and IBSF requested OCA and INASGOC to rectify the oversight, expedite construction of second field (in Senayan). The BFA technical representative will visit Jakarta again in February to monitor the progress .

Mr. Tsutomu Shida was appointed by President Peng to “BFA Counselor” and Dr. Kaku to “BFA Medical Advisor”.

Report by Mr. George Santiago on “Tree of Hope” project: To promote world peace and brotherhood, he and his partner Mr. Shih Pao Lin are going to collect 25,000 baseballs, new, old and signed by famous baseball players from around the world. The ultimate goal is to become an instrumental visual part of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Report by Ms. Hiroko Yamada, BFJ on BFA Women’s Commission:The commission is to increase the profile of women’s baseball in Asia, improving opportunities anddeveloping pathways for girls and women of all ages and skill levels to play baseball. The Women’s Commission will include 4 top-ranked Federations, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Korea, and Hong Kong.

Vacancy of BFA Member-at-Large & Appointment of Executive Director of West Asia：BFA appointed Mr. Syed Fakhar Ali Shah as the Executive Director of West Asia Baseball Development, to continue the growth of baseball in West Asia.

Dubai Cup: Thanks to cooperation by UAE Baseball Softball Federation, the first Dubai Cup between India and Pakistan was held in Dubai from December 8-10, 2017. Mr. Syed Fakhar Ali Shah urged BFA to connect with Arab area and give support for baseball development.

Issue of Malaysia: Mr. Kazuhiro Tawa, BFA Senior Advisor visited Malaysia last September. Federation Baseball Malaysia(FBM) has been suspended by Olympic Council of Malaysia(OCM) over failure to repay debt 2007 SEA Games in Indonesia. Nevertheless, the new FBM administration based atUniversiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) is trying hard to rebuild baseball in Malaysia by holding UPM Championship and umpire clinic in 2017 aiming toreturn to fold.